How a Member of the ‘Alt-Right’ Infiltrated Hillary’s Speech on Racism and Made the Internet Go Wild

It was easy to miss. During Hillary Clinton’s speech on the “alt-right” Thursday, a man shouted the word “pepe” after the Democratic nominee first mentioned the movement, what she called “an emerging racist ideology.”

The shout appeared to catch Clinton’s attention:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKCdkl9PGRk

What to make of that?

“Pepe the frog” is a green anthropomorphic cartoon frog from a 2005 comic book called “Boy’s Club.” The character became a popular internet meme, or cartoon used to express facial reactions and other thoughts on the internet.

Eventually, however, Pepe was effectively adopted by the alt-right and 4chan users (an online bulletin board where users post comments and images anonymously).

In an interview with Breitbart published Friday, the man was only identified as “Sean,” but Lewandowki confirmed to Independent Journal Review his last name.

He told Breitbart, whose chairman just joined Donald Trump’s campaign as CEO, that:

“Originally I had no intention of doing anything other than documenting the event on Periscope… then she started attacking a true patriot, and someone I really look up to, Alex Jones.”

Lewandowki said he was removed from the Clinton event after shouting “pepe” and said he considers himself:

“Alt-right because the conservative establishment right in this country does not represent my views, they are just as much to blame for the disaster taking place in America as the left, the alt right to me is fiscal responsibility, secure borders, enforcement of immigration laws, ending the PC culture, and promoting AMERICA FIRST (Not Sharia First).”

When asked by an Independent Journal Review reporter if he planned to pull out the Pepe flag for future events, Lewandowski replied on Twitter: